SeaChange loss widens

Video equipment developer SeaChange International’s revenues for the fiscal first quarter declined to $36.6 million from $40.1 million in the same period last year. Product revenue decreased 32 per cent to $11.9 million.

The year over year decrease of $5.5 million in product revenue was due to lower VoD software licence and Advertising product revenue of $6.6 million primarily related to lower demand from North American customers. Service revenue increased 8.3 per cent to $24.7 million. The $1.9 million increase in service revenue year over year was due to the higher In-Home service revenue partially offset by lower VoD and Advertising maintenance revenue from domestic customers. The company’s gross margin was flat at 55 per cent. Net loss widened to $19.6 million or $0.60 loss per share from $384,000 or $0.01 loss per share.

“During the first quarter, we took significant steps to transform SeaChange to become a pure-play software company through the sale of our former broadcast servers and storage business and our media service business units, which ultimately closed in May 2012, so that now we can focus our attention squarely on our software business,” said SeaChange CEO Raghu Rau. “We continue to invest significant resources in developing and launching our next generation software products towards the latter half of this fiscal year. We are also continuing to reduce our overall cost structure and streamline our operations.”